Descended Glory
by Icebreaker33
Summary: Quantum physics, secret government projects, talking dolphins and one astrophysicist caught in it all. What's not to love?
1. Formal introductions

/- Well, this is my first fanfic on this site. I've always liked Ecco, and a story idea came to me recently, and I just HAD to put it down on paper, you know? Anyway, these events take place right after Tides of Time. Keep in mind that I've never played DoTF, and probably never will. :)  
  
Happy Reading! -- Icebreaker -/  
  
"Should I destroy it?"  
  
Ecco looked at the Atlantean time machine in front of him, contemplating the outcomes of his various choices. He had just dodged through the City of Forever itself, sneaking past the grotesque spawn of the Vortex queen. Now, when he was so close to completing his mission, he hesitated.  
  
"I know the Asterite gave me this task," Ecco thought to himself. "I am the stone that split the stream... but is there another way to mend the Tides of Time?"  
  
The statues surrounding the mysterious machine seemed to glare at Ecco, daring him to make his move. They spoke of past glory and grandeur, their sleek, marble forms standing guard over the most advanced piece of technology the Atlanteans had. Ecco looked at the statues and contemplated the ruined civilization that produced such art.  
  
"I cannot do this," Ecco thought. "I cannot throw away this marvelous machine, this last vestige of a proud people." The eyes of the statues seemed to grow brighter, and Ecco, as if in a trance, moved towards the machine, turning towards one of the metal plates. "May the Tides of Time throw me where I am needed most," he thought to himself, before unleashing a powerful, beautiful song into the plate nearest him. The echoes bounced back and forth between the plates, slowly at first, but gaining speed rapidly as Ecco started to spin, a maelstrom of energy beginning to form around him.  
  
"I am sorry, Asterite," were his last thoughts before being engulfed in the whirlpool that was rapidly collapsing in on him, throwing him into the abyss where time and space have no meaning...  
  
- - - - - - - - - -  
  
The room was dark.  
  
The only light that existed came from a small console in the corner of the room that looked like some kind of parasitic organism, a nightmarish mix of precise technology and asymmetrical biology. It glowed softly, but its luminescence was not enough to pierce through the heavy blanket of black that hung in the room.  
  
This did not bother the two entities conversing in the room, however. Perhaps they did not need light to sense their surroundings, or perhaps they had another reason to keep themselves shrouded in utter darkness. We can only guess...  
  
"We have heard rumors," said one to the other. They communicated by projecting their thoughts directly into each other's minds, if you wanted to call their rather underdeveloped nerve centers "minds."  
  
"Yes, we have. Concerning PF-109, I believe," said the other.  
  
"Yes. We can't help but wonder how She will handle it. Hopefully better than last time, if the stories are true."  
  
There was a silence before the other replied, with a slight wavering in its voice. "We do not doubt Her wisdom. Surely those stories are just for podlings, and it is bad to speak against Her anyway."  
  
"Yes. But the rumors are still there. We wonder when validation will occur --"  
  
His response was cut off by an enormously powerful mind signal, that seemed to emanate from the walls themselves.  
  
"NOW HEAR THIS," said the message, and it seemed to echo within them after the words were completed. "ALL DRONES REPORT TO THEIR ASSIGNED STATIONS, AS FOLLOWS:" and here followed a compressed stream of images and signals, words, numbers and such, that if put into print it would easily be over a thousand pages. "WE WILL COMMENCE THE OPERATION AFTER THE COMPLETION OF FIVE, REPEAT FIVE CYCLES."  
  
The echoes died down in the two creature's minds as the message subsided. There was a brief pause before one spoke up:  
  
"Will that do for validation?"  
  
- - - - - - - - - -  
  
Donovan was having a rather pleasant day.  
  
He cast the fishing line out of the boat and sat back, cracking open a cold drink and letting the Florida sun warm his bones. It was good to be fishing, and he was glad that fate had decided to provide such excellent weather for his day off. He looked up and checked that the sails weren't flapping in the wind, then looked back in the direction he had come. "Not a dot of land in sight" he said, and smiled to himself. "Just me, myself, and some fish to keep me company." He let out a contented sigh, taking in the solitude of it all.  
  
Donovan was a rather youngish-looking man, perhaps in his mid-twenties. He had a rather pronounced jawline, and there was a touch of stubble on his chin and neck. His hair was a dark brown, and his eyes were a deep green. Presently, he felt a tug on his line, taking the pole in hand and beginning to reel in whatever had caught the end.  
  
"Ooooh, now that's a keeper," he thought to himself, as he drug a large salmon above the edge of the boat. He put it in a bucket of water next to his feet, where the salmon could enjoy the company of several other fish prisoners, caught by Donovan.  
  
As the amateur fisherman completed this task, he happened to glance up at the sky. There, hanging in the air, was a flash of light, almost as bright as the sun itself. Donovan passed this off as a lightning strike, you could sometimes get lightning without a storm out here in the ocean, but it was rare. His brain realized after a second though, that the flash was still there. His scientific mind went through many different possibilities: ball lightning? Aurora Borealis? Highly reflective, low-flying aircraft? He went through each possibility and discarded all of them, because two things were apparent. One, the burning light seemed to surround an object coming out of the atmosphere, and two, it was growing bigger and bigger in the sky as it fell...  
  
He thought back to the shuttle schedule at Cape Canaveral. There weren't any launches for the past week, so that ruled out a booster stage or a reentry pod... perhaps a piece of space debris reentering? But if so, that had to be a HUGE chunk of trash...  
  
He briefly considered moving the boat before ruling out that possibility. At this distance, he couldn't tell exactly WHERE it was going to fall, it could land where he was moving to, as opposed to where he was now. Sailing wasn't really all that fast anyway, so all he could do was hope it didn't crash through his tiny sailboat...  
  
After a few more seconds, it became evident that the object was going to land about 200 yards to the south of him, and he breathed a sigh of relief. "Oh man, I'm gonna be fine, I'm gonna be oka -- wait a second." His eyes got wider and his mouth formed the shape of a large O. "That shockwave is gonna be a HUGE bitch..."  
  
No more thinking was necessary as he scrambled into the cabin of the boat, bracing himself with a hand on either wall, anticipating impact...  
  
He heard the object shriek down to earth, and he imagined that with the fire of reentry heat surrounding it, he'd be heavily reminded of a phoenix. Shortly after, he heard the blast of the thing hitting the surface like a thousand-ton bomb, and he knew the waves would come soon after...  
  
They came indeed, hitting the little boat like a ton of bricks. He could feel the wave come under the boat as it rose quickly into the air, leaving his stomach on the floor... and then the sickening fall from that dizzying height, ripping his stomach from the floor and plastering it on the ceiling.  
  
This continued with more waves, each slightly less potent than the last, but still quite intimidating. As the seas settled down into a relative calm, the first thing Donovan did was to head outside and retch over the side of the boat. He kept at this for a while until he had nothing left to vomit, and then looked up at the object that had hit the ocean's surface...  
  
And froze.  
  
It was, he assumed, a spacecraft of some kind, but it wasn't made out of metal. It was like... an organism. There were several appendages that served functions Donovan could only guess at, and while some facets resembled Earth technology, such as hatches, tail fins, and the like, the rest of the spacecraft was utterly alien to him, although it was small. Perhaps only 400 meters in length.  
  
What he DIDN'T see, however, was the hatch opening on the bottom of the spacecraft. Three creatures crawled out, with elongated heads, vicious claws, and a vaguely reptilian body, complete with long tail...  
  
Donovan didn't see this, however, and the scientific part of his mind was temporarily stunned at the appearance of this object. His imagination, on the other hand, was running wild. "Aliens! Big, green men from Mars! Or maybe Russians!"  
  
As he sat there studying the ship, the three hunters swam around the perimeter of their floating spacecraft. One noticed the sailboat towards the north, their vision was excellent in these clear waters, just as it had been in the days of old. The creature slid towards the boat, and the others, communicating silently, followed suit.  
  
The first popped its head above the water about twenty feet from the boat, and Donovan came out of his trance-like state as the adrenalin started to pump into his system again. He thought his trouble was over with the LANDING of the craft, he didn't think he'd have to deal with whatever was inside of it.  
  
As the first creature surveyed the boat from a distance, another came up on the other side and scratched its way up the hull with its claws. Donovan looked and nearly needed a change of shorts as he noticed those long, sharp instruments of death. The creature opened his mouth, revealing twin rows of razor-sharp teeth, and Donovan, for once in his life, was out of ideas.  
  
- - - - - - - - - -  
  
Nothingness.  
  
That was really the only way to describe traveling through the Tides of Time. Ecco looked around and saw nothing, smelled nothing, heard nothing. The only sense was that of movement, very fast through this dark and enormous area. The dolphin was used to this by now, so he decided not to worry himself with the travel sequence. He was worried, however, about where he was going.  
  
Not even when he accompanied Trellia to the future, millions of years after his own time, had the travel taken this long. Ecco wasn't sure, but he had reason to suspect that the longer you were kept in the Abyss, the farther from your own time you were traveling. Judging by the length of this trip, he was traveling farther into the future than he ever had before...  
  
And now, gradually, light began to filter in through the edges of his eyes. He was spinning so fast he didn't even feel it, but as he slowed down, it became increasingly evident to his stomach that he was moving faster than any dolphin was intended to, and he fought to keep his food down.  
  
The portal once again manifested itself, and Ecco crashed through it, lines of color and darkness spreading in every direction. His mind blanked out for a split-second, before his world began to cool down, the colors dampening into the everyday variety, and he realized that he was falling towards an ocean.  
  
He splashed down, and was instantly in his element as his mind fully cleared. He looked to the left and right, trying to get his bearings. First, he saw an alien spacecraft, which looked like a slightly advanced Vortex creation from his own time. Looking around some more, he noticed the boat and the three creatures harassing its occupant.  
  
"Medusas," the dolphin snarled, as he closed in on the one nearest him, the one that was surveying the boat from afar. He fired off several bursts of echo in rapid succession, leaving the Medusa confused for a fraction of a second. That was all Ecco needed, as he brought his nose crashing through the hapless creature's body, emerging out the other end as the ruined form of what had been a proud, Vortex warrior sank into the deep...  
  
Ecco surveyed the boat again. There were two more Medusas that were closing in on a strangely familiar creature, supporting itself on two appendages...  
  
"No matter," the dolphin thought to himself. "I'll kill the Vortex first, and then worry about the hostility of this other creature..."  
  
Meanwhile, Donovan thought he was, as they say, done for. These two creatures were advancing slowly, menacingly towards him. Even if he could fight them off in hand-to-hand, there had been another burst of light just now, which he supposed had brought reinforcements for these aliens.  
  
He was watching his life flash before his eyes as a DOLPHIN, of all things, crashed up on the deck of his boat. There were two screeches that nearly made his ears bleed, and which also appeared to throw the aliens overboard. The dolphin chased after them, down under the murky depths, as Donovan watched. It was silent for a few seconds, then some bubbles began to emerge, and finally, one of the alien's arms floated to the surface, still holding those nightmarish claws.  
  
He looked over the other end of his boat and saw the dolphin, with its nose poking out of the water, studying him intently.  
  
"Hah, ahahaha," Donovan laughed to himself. "A spacecraft, aliens, rescued by a dolphin... I should quit working so hard," he mumbled to himself, before falling backwards into the sweet embrace of unconsciousness.  
  
"What was that, creature?" Ecco squeaked at Donovan, who was down for the count. "Bah. Can you understand me? No? Stupid creatures..."  
  
Ecco regarded Donovan with contempt, before realizing what had been tickling the back of his mind since this affair began...  
  
This creature, the one the Vortex had been after... looked exactly like the creatures depicted by the statues in Atlantis... 


	2. Meeting continued

/- Chapter Two! Apparently this site won't let you upload stories until your account has sat there for a few days, so I'm just gonna write a bunch of chapters and upload them in one big clump. I have biiiiig plans for this storyline, but will my interest be held long enough to finish it? Stay tuned to find out! ;)  
  
Happy Reading! -- Icebreaker -/  
  
Space is, really, far more vast than the human mind is prepared to comprehend. The Vortex, however, have no such flaw, perhaps because of their ability to instantly communicate between each other. If one were to hang in the vastness of space, with spheres of light in the far distance all around, one would sense snippets of Vortex energy rushing past, a veritable web of information that criss-crossed the unfathomable distances of the galaxy. One such exchange occurred as follows, directly after the destruction of the three Vortex warriors on Earth.  
  
"It would appear that your hypothesis was correct, concerning the Anomaly." This message came as a spreading wave through the cosmos, like a pebble dropped into an absolutely still pond, extending outward in all directions. If one had been able to read the message, they would've sensed the magnitude, the FORCE of the thought energy behind it. It wasn't long, several nanoseconds in Earth terms, before a reply was formed and sent:  
  
"Yes. Now you see the wisdom of sending in that small force first, to see if it would reemerge."  
  
There was a barely perceptible pause. "If this is indeed the creature spoke of in the Ancient Library, we must proceed with the utmost caution."  
  
"This does complicate matters. We have, of course, planned for the creature's appearance, but it makes everything more difficult."  
  
"And if... if we fail? The texts warn of this creature, perhaps it would be best to abandon the project..."  
  
"No. We've put far more effort and time into this now, and besides, there is suitable evidence to suggest that the humans have succeeded in their task."  
  
"Well, that being the case, perhaps we should press on --"  
  
"I knew you'd see it properly. You are, of course, a Queen, but you have much to learn yet..."  
  
"But of course, Brood Mother. I accept your wisdom without question."  
  
"As it should be. Now go, and carry out the next stage of the plan. We'll have planet PF-109 lay its secrets before us yet."  
  
And with that, the link was broken across the ocean of space, replaced with more mundane communications.  
  
- - - - - - - - - -  
  
Donovan, on the other hand, was tending to matters of the less celestial. Specifically, he was trying to open his eyes and ignore the dull ache of his brain. He brought an arm up to touch the back of his head, it felt like he'd suffered a nasty bump when he fainted, but nothing to be too worried about. He'd get it checked out for concussion when he got back to shore...  
  
To shore... It all came rushing back to him. Light, spacecraft, aliens, claws, dolphin...  
  
His eyes snapped open as he sat up, steadying himself under the hot sun. His boat was still intact, that was a good sign. He looked over the sides for any sign of his dolphin savior, but could find none. He sighed and stretched, leaning against the door into the cabin. "Perhaps it was a dream..." he thought to himself.  
  
And then he spotted, just about to cross over into the horizon, the floating Vortex strike craft. The realization came down like a hammer on his psyche, he was actually attacked, by ALIENS, no less... And the one who had saved him...  
  
"Ah, you appear to be conscious again," squeaked Ecco, after having emerged from the depths with a fish clamped in his beak. "If you are hungry, you can have this. Just caught one for myself, in fact," he said, twisting his head and flinging the fish onto the deck of the boat.  
  
Donovan stared blankly at the dolphin, then at the fish. "Are you trying to tell me you want fish? I can't eat them when they're raw..." His voice was just as blank as his expression, devoid of emotion. He was still in shock. "I should have a bucket of them around here somewhere... got knocked around a bit, I'll find it, hold on." Keeping himself occupied with smaller tasks, Donovan went down below to find the bucket of fish he'd caught earlier.  
  
As the human spoke, Ecco pondered the strangeness of his song. Was this the language uttered in the ruined pathways of Atlantis, so long ago? Ecco couldn't shake the fact that this creature and the statues in the submerged city seemed to correlate with each other perfectly. It couldn't be a coincidence... could it?  
  
"Creature, do you know of Atlantis?" sang Ecco, towards the boat. "Can you understand my song at all?"  
  
"Whoa, whoa, hold on, I've got your fish," said Donovan, as he emerged from below decks. "No need to make such a ruckus, I think those... things... are dead and gone by now." He held out the bucket of fish, tipping it so that the dolphin could see its contents.  
  
"Fish?" thought Ecco to himself. "Well, at least this creature seems friendly..."  
  
"Atlantean," he sang towards Donovan. "Can you or can you not understand my song?"  
  
"Geez, impatient, are we? Well, here you are, it's the least I can do for you," said Donovan, as he emptied the bucket overboard. "Dolphins... clowns of the sea," he thought, as Ecco started squeaking again.  
  
"Grah, I would have thought you Atlanteans advanced enough to be able to understand songs other than your own," sang Ecco. "Perhaps it IS a coincidence, you can't be related to those great architects, you're too slow, weak..."  
  
"Stupid creature," thought the human and the dolphin, each to themselves.  
  
Donovan shrugged as Ecco refused his fish, who instead was squeaking at him angrily. "Well, that's all the thanks I can give you, really. Don't suppose you have need of money." He glanced out to the horizon, towards the spacecraft that was slowly floating away. "And someone's going to get a lot of money if they can get the rights to this site... I've gotta get back to shore." He started rigging up the sails again, still speaking to himself. "This is the biggest discovery of the century... the millenium... hell, perhaps EVER..."  
  
Ecco shook his head as the human continued prattling in his weird song. "Why have the Tides dropped me here?" he asked himself. "Certainly the Vortex are back, but am I to protect this creature, and perhaps his whole kind?" He looked up into the sky, with the clouds floating by leisurely, and the bright, ever-burning sun. "By Delphinus, am I never to rest again? When will my tasks end?" He shook his head again, attempting to clear his thoughts. "No, no thoughts of that kind. I have been assigned this task, and I will finish it. But how am I supposed to protect that with which I cannot communicate?"  
  
Ecco looked again at Donovan, as he worked to get the sails up and working. "These creatures must be land dwellers," thought the dolphin to himself, studying the human's legs intently. "I will take this one back to land, and perhaps meet his elders. Maybe they will know how to sing my song..."  
  
Donovan did quick, mental calculations as he readied the sails. "At this windspeed," he thought to himself, "I should be able to get back to the coast in, what... 2, maybe 3 hours?" He sighed as he got the rigging up, preparing for the long journey ahead...  
  
There was a bump, a thud, emanating from the back of the boat. Donovan leaned over to see what was happening, and nearly lost his balance as the boat started gaining momentum. "What? It shouldn't accelerate THAT fast..."  
  
He looked over the edge again as the boat kept accelerating, peering intently beneath the waves. There he saw that dolphin again, pushing his boat towards the Florida coastline.  
  
"Damn, this guy's really cooking!" said Donovan. "At this rate, we'll be at the shore in half an hour!" He gave a slight bow towards the dolphin, surveyed his boat once more, and then had a seat on the deck.  
  
"Delphinus give me strength," Ecco panted, as he pushed this creature's massive craft towards land. "These beings appear to be helpless when it comes to water travel... why can they not just stay on land?" The dolphin continued pushing the boat as Donovan relaxed, thinking of what to do next.  
  
"This dolphin, here, might have something to do with those... aliens." He raised a hand up to brush at the bump on the back of his head. "If only I could communicate with him, perhaps we could learn a little about those nightmarish creatures."  
  
Something from the back of his mind, that he hadn't accessed in a long time, came bubbling to the front of his consciousness. "That old crackpot? Naw, he couldn't really... could he?"  
  
He glanced out at the water. "He did say he had a way... but he's a total recluse! He's senile, a schizo!"  
  
Another part of his brain countered this. "But what if he was right?" 


	3. Hints of rivalry

/- Holy hell, I got a review! And here I was, thinking that the poor Ecco fanfic section had gone unnoticed in the last few months... ;)  
  
To answer your question, Ovo, Donovan has been a name I picked a long time ago for all sorts of characters. I used to play on various MUD's, MUXes, and the like, and I was invariably named Donovan. Now, a lot of people seem to assume that I stole it from some game or something ("Hey! You're a Darkstalkers fan, eh?"), but the only game I've played that had a character named Donovan in it was Super Puzzle Fighter II Turbo. Although, he does seem to hand out opened cans of whoop-ass in that game...  
  
Now about my writing style - bear with me here, I'll get to the actual story sooner or later ;) - I know that it's rather choppy, and I use too many elipses... See, there I go again. I'm working on that via practice, which is a big reason I'm writing this thing in the first place. Hopefully, the chapters will get better with time... if not, at least I can have some fun. :)  
  
Also, if anyone has an example, be it book or fanfic, of two characters trying to have a conversation in different languages, would you please notify me? Hell, I can't even use BODY language to clear up communication between Donovan and our beloved dolphin, so any examples of writing in this context would be appreciated.  
  
Now, was there anything else I needed to say... no? Well, on with Chapter 3, then. =P  
  
Happy Reading! -- Icebreaker -/  
  
Donovan stepped off of his boat, surveying the glare of the open sand behind a battered pair of sunglasses. "Well, here we are... more or less."  
  
He was standing about twenty feet in from the coastline, as the endless noise of the surf came crashing in on the beach around him. Beautiful palm trees were all around, and a crab could be seen here or there, scuttling across the sand.  
  
Ecco, on the other hand, was about twenty feet OUT from the coastline, where he had remained since he had stopped pushing the boat. Now, any heavy object, such as a boat, takes a good amount of force to stop it if it happens to be moving rather speedily. Ecco had not bothered to stop Donovan's watercraft.  
  
Consequently, the thing was just as far inland as Donovan was, almost completely beached on the sand and, apparently, propped up against a palm tree.  
  
Donovan sighed as he surveyed the damage. "Well, I'll fix this later... the satellite jockies back at the labs probably picked up that craft, and I'll bet there's a slew of messages on my home machine." He turned and whistled at the dolphin out in the water. "And I still have to find a way to communicate with this guy... I'll give the old man a shot."  
  
"Hey, you!" Donovan yelled, out in Ecco's direction. "Stay put for a minute, I've gotta go get my wheels." He stayed for a minute longer, making sure the dolphin wasn't going anywhere, before running up through the palm trees at a fast jog. "Good thing that dolphin crash-landed less than a mile from the parking lot..." he thought, as he rushed down a sandy path cutting inland.  
  
Ecco also contemplated the situation. "What was that creature babbling about? And, perhaps more importantly, why is he running away?" He looked at the beach, glancing over Donovan's beached boat. "Aha! I know," he thought, as an idea struck him. "He must be going to get his elders! With something as unexpected as a Vortex attack, that has to be his current course of action." Ecco settled down for the moment, content that there was at least some semblance of a plan in action.  
  
An image of Trellia came unbiiden into his mind. He was startled for a second. "Hrmm... wonder where that came from..."  
  
The image started off an interesting train of thought. "If I am truly farther into the future than I was when accompanied by Trellia... then what has happened to the glorious civilization that those fliers had built?" He became more agitated now, his tail starting to churn up small amounts of water. "And the Asterite, what of him? I had thought he was all but invincible... perhaps he still exists in this timeline?"  
  
Ecco closed his eyes, delving deeper into his mind's eye. "The Asterite always communicated without singing... perhaps... perhaps, if he was alive now, he would be able to talk without being able to see me?" He attuned his senses, concentrating on the voice of the Asterite, shutting out all outside stimulations. And there, right THERE... it was fuzzy, and came in pulses... a repetitive mantra that had been going on for who knows how long. Ecco, at first, couldn't make it out, but he concentrated still harder... his consciousness collapsing in on itself, down a a single pinpoint of existence, until he could hear the voice he thought might be gone forever.  
  
"Ecco... Ecco... Ecco... Ecco..."  
  
He was rudely awakened by a whistling noise, accompanied by a noise that was not unlike the noise one heard inside one's head when shocked by an eel. Ecco unwillingly came out of his trance, and stared at the beach. "The Asterite! He's alive! Oh, he's weak, but at least I can hear his voice..." He finally took notice of the current situation on the sand, and his mind became bright with another emotion: confusion. "What... in the world...?"  
  
Donovan honked the horn again, trying to get the dolphin's attention. "I certainly hope he can at least understand enough to follow me." He looked down the beach, once again amazed at how... DESERTED it was. "I guess being a government-paid astrophysicist isn't that bad of a deal. I mean, you do get access to their private beach..."  
  
Ecco tentatively came closer to the beach, close enough that his underside brushed against the seafloor. "What... is THAT thing?" he thought, as he looked up and down the length of Donovan's Jeep. "Is it some kind of machinery? Perhaps he is of Atlantis... they were supposedly skilled at this sort of thing..."  
  
"Hey, dolphin!" cried out Donovan. "I'm gonna get moving here, so just follow me, allright?" He started easing the Jeep forward, keeping an eye on Ecco at all times. "C'mon, guy, just follow me... come on...."  
  
"Ah! It appears to be some kind of machine that helps this creature move." Ecco looked at the vehicle as it slowly moved down the beach. "Perhaps this is the only way he can get to his elders...? I must inform these creatures of the danger they're in!" He started pumping his tail faster, keeping even with the car.  
  
Donovan breathed a sigh of relief. "Excellent. I guess what they say about dolphin intelligence isn't ALL false..." He glanced at the speedometer, then thought back to the boat earlier. "Hrmm... the boat was going pretty fast... I wonder how speedy this guy REALLY is?" He incremented the speedometer until the needle went past twenty-five miles per hour... thirty... thirty-five... forty...  
  
Ecco kept pace with the accelerating Jeep with ease. "Is that all the faster these things can go? I expected more out of an Atlantean..." He smirked and laughed inwardly. "I guess no manner of machinery can make up for that which dolphins are born with..."  
  
"Wow, forty miles an hour? Wish I could swim that fast..." He kept his foot steady on the pedal. "No faster, though, wouldn't want to tire the little guy out. And besides, if I lose traction on this sand, it's not going to be a pretty picture..."  
  
The unlikely pair continued on the path, both sea and land, towards a small beach house about ten miles away...  
  
- - - - - - - - - -  
  
Donovan stopped the car just outside the bungalow. He stepped out, looking back at the electric fence that seperated the government-owned beach from the privately owned expanse he was on now...  
  
"God, this is gonna be kind of... awkward..." He brushed the back of his head with his hand as he made his approach to the building he was currently parked in front of, eventually stepping up on the porch, and raising his fist to knock on the door...  
  
It opened before he got a chance to knock, revealing a rather old man in an open lab coat with a blue T-shirt underneath. His hair was a dark grey, and was tied back into a ponytail coming down to his shoulders. Both hands were propped on a gnarled, crooked walking stick, and his round, wire-rimmed glasses reflected the Florida sun back into Donovan's eyes.  
  
They stood there, staring at each other. The old man was wearing an angry scowl, and Donovan attempted to smile before feeling self-conscious and reverting to a neutral stare.  
  
Donovan cleared his throat before speaking. "It's, uh, good to see you Nicholas..."  
  
"Whaddya want, Rescii?" Nicholas's voice was raspy, although it conveyed his anger rather well. "You've got about two seconds before I throw you off my property, so speak up."  
  
"I, uh, need your help," said Donovan, fidgeting with the collar of his shirt. "If you'd just hear me out, I think you'll agree that it'll be worth it..."  
  
The old man's eyebrows shot up at this. "Oh, really now? Well, this is a first..." He glanced over his shoulder before stepping to the side, beckoning Donovan to come in. "Let's hear what you've got to say, then."  
  
Ecco, on the other hand, was in the ocean outside of Nicholas's bungalow. "Is this where the elders of his civilization live?" He pictured the grandiose halls of Atlantis, the great statues and flying buttresses, and then compared those images to the old man's rather humble abode. "No... no, this can't be right..."  
  
"Hi!" someone said, and Ecco did a double-take.  
  
"By the gods... who said that?" said Ecco, spinning around in the water.  
  
"Well, me of course, stranger." A female dolphin came swimming up beside him, laughing slightly. "Don't tell me you scare THAT easily."  
  
Ecco was silent, as he rejoiced inwardly that dolphinkind was still in existence. "Te... tell me, singer, what is your name?"  
  
The other dolphin did a playful spin in the water before answering. "Well, the old man that lives in the house up there calls me Trellia. What's yours?"  
  
It's kind of like getting a cold slap in the face when ome hears something like that. Not really painful, but it's sure as hell a surprise, and Ecco was currently stunned as such. But then he began to chuckle, then laugh uproariously. "Oh, but does fate have a sense of humor! Weird, perhaps twisted... but it's there."  
  
He stopped laughing so hard, taking notice again of the dolphin beside him. "Oh, where are my manners. The members of my pod call me Ecco..." 


	4. Understanding

/- Well now, I'll be. TWO reviews? That's just insane... ;)  
  
But keep 'em coming, it encourages me a bit. If you make any suggestions in a review that I find agreeable, I'll try and include them in a chapter. (i.e., in this one, I'll be sharpening my detail skillz, even though it's rather plot-heavy... =P )  
  
Also, the site appeared to be having a little trouble lately, wherein the third chapter just... disappeared for a day, along with my previous review. I resubmitted the document, and it appears that the reviews are back, so I'll keep my fingers crossed that it doesn't break again.  
  
Also, these chapters are small enough that it appears I'm able to write one a night. We'll see how long that holds up, but for now, check back each evening and see if there's a new piece up. ;)  
  
Happy Reading! -- Icebreaker -/  
  
"What the hell do you mean, you're cutting my funding?"  
  
The department chairman cleared his throat, and the sound of it echoed from the walls of his spacious office. There was a large, mahogany desk parallel to one wall, with a small, potted tree in an opposite corner. Sunlight came down in diagonal bars from the wide windows, with their blinds halfway drawn over a view of the college common grounds.  
  
The rather portly, balding man seated behind the desk interlaced his fingers and placed his hands on his stomach. "Well, as we've said before, Dr. Card, the university feels that it can no longer associate itself with such... radical research as yours."  
  
The sunlight glinted momentarily off of Nicholas Card's glasses, his form hunched over his ever-present walking stick. "MY research? It's linguistics, for God's sake!" His eye twitched slightly, and he threw one hand into the air, palm open. "How can you deem my research to be radical, up against Professor Toilbert? Wasting particle accelerator time on these 'gravitons' of his..." He paused for a moment as he gestured towards the door. "Or what about that grad student, the one working exclusively on time travel, of all things! I understand he's getting quite a good chunk of change, funding-wise, from your department, eh?"  
  
The chairman sighed as he looked down at the stack of papers on his desk. "Nicholas, the fact is, the claims you've been making to the public, combined with your latest psych report..." He rifled through the stack to a particular sheaf of paper, looked over it briefly, and then glanced back up to Nicholas. "Have you seen these reports yet? I mean, you've got a very strange form of schizophrenia... granted, a mild case, but still..."  
  
Dr. Card's mind froze for a second, although he showed no outward signs of it. "Well, well well," he thought to himself. "You knew this day would come... you aren't made of money, you know, can't keep the medical records altered forever..."  
  
Outwardly, he snorted. "Bah. Psychology never was an exact science, I always said. And besides, the report says it's a mild case anyway, right? It's never got in the way of my work before..." He squinted through his glasses as he gazed towards the chairman. "Sir, you know as well as I do that my results can't be argued with. And if I'm right... if dolphins are truly as intelligent as I believe..."  
  
"Regardless of my thoughts on the matter," the Chairman said, cutting him off, "you have to admit that there is a certain amount of... difficulty proving your results to the skeptic." He leaned back in his chair, tapping a finger on the report in front of him. "Your public statements have attracted a good amount of public attention. If any journalists were to gain access to the facts contained in this report... and combine THAT with the fact that your demonstrations could easily be duplicated with careful training of the animals and a good dollop of general fakery..."  
  
He leaned forward and sighed once more. "Even if you don't agree with my decision, you see the reasons behind it, do you not? The integrity of the department comes first... you understand?"  
  
Nicholas took a long, calming breath. "Oh yes, I understand," he said, his raspy voice shaking with quiet anger. "I understand that when I do perfect the methods behind my research, it will be a breakthrough such that the world has never before seen, and I also understand that it will be ME, not you, not this university, not ANYONE else, that will be credited with it's completion."  
  
The chairman flashed a slight grin. "As well the case may be, Dr. Card, but I'm afraid I must ask you to pack your things and leave by the end of the week." He adjusted his position in his cushioned office chair, stacking the papers spread across the desk as he did so. "Now, I have another appointment shortly, so if you could please see yourself to the door..."  
  
Nicholas was dead silent for a full thirty seconds as the chairman arranged his papers. "As you wish, SIR," he finally said, putting cold emphasis on the last word. He turned around and hobbled towards the door, using his one good leg and his walking stick to move.  
  
He emerged into a hallway painted in neutral colors, with a bench against one wall of the corridor. On this bench sat a rather young man, no older than twenty, with brown hair, green eyes, and a sharply trimmed, rather sparse goatee. He stood up as Nicholas limped out of the door.  
  
"Dr. Card... I couldn't help overhearing your predicament. I'm truly sorry to hear that -"  
  
"Save it, Rescii." Nicholas glared at the student from behind his wire- frame glasses. "I know it was you that suggested I get psych-tested in the first place." He raised his walking stick slightly and gestured towards Donovan. "You couldn't give a rat's ass about my well-being, you're just out for your research, for that big discovery, just like the rest of them..."  
  
"Like me..." he added in his own thoughts.  
  
Donovan paused, his mouth slightly open. "Please understand, Dr. Card, I was only acting in the best interests of -"  
  
"Of the university, yeah yeah yeah. I told you to save it, Rescii, and I meant it." With that, Nicholas Card hobbled off down the corridor, without so much as a look back over his shoulder. And a gangly, goatee-wearing Donovan Rescii looked at the doctor's retreating form momentarily, before entering the door in front of him and stepping into the chairman's office.  
  
They wouldn't see each other again for another six years...  
  
- - - - - - - - - -  
  
Donovan ducked his head as he stepped into the bungalow of Nicholas Card. "So, uh, tell me, Nicholas," he said, as his eyes began adjusting to the relatively low light levels inside, "how close are you to completing the devices used in your research?"  
  
As his eyes adjusted, Donovan looked around at what appeared to be a single- room building. All along the walls were gutted electronic equipment of various kinds: wires, chips, and control knobs all knotted together around steel and aluminum cases. There was a bed in one corner, as well as what appeared to be an oscilloscope crammed under it. An icebox resided in the middle of the room, it's chrome finish reflecting back the chipped, aquamarine paint on the walls.  
  
Dr. Card stepped in afterwards, wearing a somewhat less-angrier scowl than before. "Oh hell, let's see here," he said, as he stepped across the room towards a closed, wooden cabinet against the far wall. "I must've finished up, what... two, three years ago?"  
  
Donovan nearly choked on his own saliva at this revelation. "But... but you..." He coughed slightly, recomposed himself, and continued. "I thought your plan was to perfect your research, and then release your results to the general public? You said you were going to get all the credit for your work, and not have to share it with anyone."  
  
Nicholas sighed as he continued crossing the room. "Well, yes, that was the original plan, but that course of action was born out of vengeance more than anything else. I've mellowed out some in the last few years, which is why I'm talking to you and haven't, in fact, put a large hole in your head." He gestured toward a shotgun propped against the doorframe that Donovan had missed in his initial scan of the room. "I find that a hermit's lifestyle, while having it's own unique set of problems, is in fact quite enjoyable... Now, can I get you anything to drink?" he asked, throwing open the doors of the far cabinet, revealing double rows of various bottles of alcohol.  
  
Donovan, despite his near brush with death, couldn't help but grin slightly. "That old bastard, he's still got it..."  
  
"Uh, I'll just take a shot of vodka, if that's allright." Nicholas nodded and started pouring the drinks as Donovan had a seat on the foot of the bed. "So, Dr. Card, uh... am I to believe that your communications gear is fully functional?"  
  
"About as functional as I can make it, and I hope I don't sound boastful when I say that that's pretty damn good." He made his way toward the bed with a drink in each hand, passing one to Donovan as he took a seat. "And I suppose you want a demonstration, huh?" he said, as he took a sip of scotch.  
  
Donovan downed his shot, wiping the back of his hand against his mouth. "Well, actually, yes, if you have the time..."  
  
"Splendid, I'd be happy to. But first," he said, squinting his eyes behind his glasses, "how about you tell me what the hell it is that brings you out to see me?"  
  
- - - - - - - - - -  
  
"Ecco! That's a neat name." Trellia spun around in the water once more, before turning to regard her counterpart. "Are you here to play with me? Sometimes a dolphin or two will come in from the deep waters to play with me and Nicholas up there..."  
  
Ecco grinned inwardly. "Oh, but if only I had time for play!" he thought to himself. "Fate, unfortunately, continues to have other plans for me..."  
  
"No, Trellia, actually I have to warn you and those land-dwelling creatures..." A thought occurred to him. "By the way, what's the name for them? Those creatures up there, I mean." He gestured with his bottlenose inland, where two forms were emerging from Nicholas's bungalow and making their way to the beach.  
  
Trellia nonchalantly turned to regard the two figures. "Oh, you mean those guys? They're called humans, everyone knows that." She swam up to the surface for a breath of air, then came back down. "You act funny, Ecco. It's like you're from another world or something..."  
  
Ecco smirked at that comment. "Actually, you may not be far off..."  
  
"Whaaa...?" Trellia exclaimed, bubbles emerging from her open beak.  
  
"Er, nevermind about that just yet. You mentioned that the elder one up there named you?"  
  
Trellia turned her head to one side, regarding Ecco quizzically. "Well, yes. The old man up there found me when I was just a baby, and called me Trellia... He's the only human I've ever met that can sing, and he's actually a really nice creature." Trellia paused, and wiggled her left fin up and down. "Well, actually, he doesn't do the singing, this little box that he tosses in the water does it for him. He tells it what to say in human-speak, and it sings it out to me."  
  
"Amazing!" Ecco thought. "Not only can this elder sing to dolphins, it also appears that he has mastery of machinery! This is an elder of Atlantis for sure!"  
  
- - - - - - - - -  
  
"Allright, Rescii, I don't necessarily believe you, but I've never met a dolphin who lied."  
  
Donovan and Nicholas were walking down from the house to the beach, where a makeshift pier jutted out into the water. Donovan was carrying what looked like two half-shoeboxes under each arm, with long antennae on either one.  
  
"Damn man, aliens... you sure you weren't just on a bad trip or something?"  
  
Donovan sighed before turning to regard the old man walking next to him. "Nicholas, I don't 'trip' at all. Don't worry, the dolphin will verify my story, if you wish not to believe me." He glanced down at the boxes under his arms. "What I'm worried about is whether these things actually work, or if you just pre-programmed some random responses into them."  
  
Nicholas grinned as he stepped up onto the pier. "Rescii, you flatter me by thinking I'd stoop so low as to entertain myself with the simple delusion of talking to a dolphin. These are the real deal, I assure you." He stopped about halfway down the pier, and turned towards Donovan. "Allright, chief, throw one overboard."  
  
The younger of the two hesitated. "What, just throw one in there? Does it matter which one?"  
  
Nicholas shook his head. "Nope, pick one to hang onto, and chuck the other overboard. They're just beefed up microcomputers hooked together via wireless link, running my translation software and using microphones and speakers as input/output. And of course," he said, bending over to stare into the water, "totally waterproof."  
  
He put his fingers in his mouth and emitted a shrill whistle, as Donovan threw one of the boxes into the water with a ker-SPLASH. Trellia came swimming up from out farther in the ocean, apparently called by Nicholas's whistle, with Ecco not too far behind.  
  
"Allright, it's show time. Rescii, let me see the remaining box."  
  
Donovan obligingly handed over the box that was still under his arm, and Nicholas wasted no time pulling open a cover and adjusting several knobs underneath. "Allright, signal strength's good, squealch's fine, voltage's great... and, power UP..."  
  
He flicked a switch on the back of the unit, and for a few seconds, all Donovan could hear was static. It gradually dissipated, however, leaving behind silence with a clicking noise at regular intervals.  
  
"Testing, testing," Nicholas said, speaking toward the box. "Trellia, can you hear me?"  
  
"Loud and clear, Nicholas," said the box, and Donovan almost lost his footing, his mind reeling.  
  
"Wha... what... no, you couldn't really have..."  
  
"Humans!" said the box, albeit in a different voice, which Donovan, even in his current unbalanced state, presumed was the dolphin that had wrecked his boat earlier. "I can see that you are truly Atlanteans of the highest order, and can only congratulate you on such a wonderful peace of machinery!"  
  
The young astrophysicist's mind split into different threads, each one pursuing a different train of thought that tried to rationalize what he was hearing. A niggling piece of thought gained predominance over the rest, however, and read as follows:  
  
"Wait... did he just say Atlanteans?" 


	5. Legend unveiled

/- Oops.  
  
I've heard from various people that the time machine can only go into the past, but unfortunately, I only heard this AFTER I played ToT, so I didn't look for it in the script. I can't remember whether or not it actually says so in-game, and the site that used to host the transcripts appears to be down for the time being.  
  
What I DO remember, though, was a passage that proved beyond a doubt, for me at least, that Ecco was from some distance in the past. I hope to illustrate this in the following chapter, and I just checked that it was accurate on my old, dusty Genesis. =P  
  
Now if, after I get access to the original scripts, I learn that the time machine actually does only work by sending into the past, I'll probably invent some long, poorly-thought excuse involving multiple dimensions, several separate timelines, and the thought that Time can be viewed as a moebius strip.  
  
Or, I'll just call for suspension of disbelief, whichever's easier. :)  
  
Happy Reading! -- Icebreaker -/  
  
"So, wait Doc. The thing actually WORKS? I am, right now, talking to... to a dolphin?!"  
  
The sun was shining down on the rickety wooden pier, glinting off the continuously changing contour map of the ocean. Nicholas was seated beside a stunned Donovan, his legs hanging off the edge and dipping into the water.  
  
"Well, that's the idea. What, you expected that I was getting a little... slow in my old age?" Nicholas fiddled with some of the knobs on the box in his lap, of whom's twin was on the seafloor under them. "Six years is quite a long time to get something right."  
  
Donovan finally managed to close his hanging jaw, and took a seat next to the old man. He still wasn't fully convinced... perhaps the old doctor had just programmed in simple speech recognition and English reply tools. It was, after all, what they had been worried about at the university...  
  
"Okay, then, dolphin," Donovan said, directing his voice toward the box, "if you can really hear me, then what color is the hull on my sailboat?"  
  
Ecco, who was currently floating in the water about ten feet under the pair of humans, looked at the black box with amazement. "Honestly, these Atlantean creations keep getting more and more useful. Certainly, there is a certain flatness of tone associated with its singing, but you can't expect an artificial dolphin's voice to be as good as the real thing."  
  
He glanced toward Trellia, who was floating beside him. "Trellia," he whispered, "how do I use the machine to talk to the humans above? I sang towards it before, is that all that I need do, or is there something more... complex?"  
  
Trellia shook her head slightly. "From my understanding," she whispered, "Nicholas does all the complex stuff. All we have to do is sing towards the box, and the humans up above will hear us."  
  
Ecco nodded and thought back to when he had first arrived, formulating a reply to Donovan's question.  
  
"Your... craft, human, had a coating that was a deep green as of old algae, with various designs composed of orange lines on its underside."  
  
Donovan leaned back, propping himself up with his palms. "Well, I'll be damned. Don't suppose there's any way you could've known that, Nicholas."  
  
The old man rolled his eyes and put a hand over the microphone. "Allright, doubting Thomas, hopefully that'll be proof enough for you. However, if you don't mind, there is the matter of these aliens or whatever that needs attending to."  
  
He took his hand off the microphone and cleared his throat. "Allright, new guy. I don't believe you ever gave us your name..."  
  
Ecco turned and looked up at the pier before speaking. "As I have already told Trellia, my pod calls me Ecco."  
  
Nicholas grinned at the box in his lap. "Ah, so you have met Trellia, then. She's made an excellent companion to me, and I'm sure you two will get along just fine."  
  
"Why thank you, Nicholas," Trellia said as she came up for a breath of air. The minuscule geyser caused by this act covered Donovan in a fine mist of saltwater, and he brushed a hand across his face to remove the worst of it.  
  
"Am I to assume then, that the old one's name is Nicholas?" Ecco inquired.  
  
Nicholas adjusted a crick in his neck, and the loud pop unnerved Donovan slightly. "That's correct. My name is Nicholas Card, Ecco, pleasure to meet you."  
  
"It is well to be in your presence also," replied Ecco. "And the other human? The one I met on his 'boat'?"  
  
"Oh, him? His name's Donovan Rescii, I wouldn't worry too much about him..."  
  
"I can speak for myself, Dr. Card," quipped Donovan, who was getting rather tired of remaining mute throughout this exchange. "But, uh... yes, he got the name right. I'm Donovan, Donovan Rescii, pleased to meet both of you dolphins."  
  
"The same to you, Donovan. Now, I also assume that you're both creatures of Atlantis, correct?"  
  
Nicholas started to speak, but Donovan had already formed a reply for this one. "Ecco, I'm not entirely sure where you're from, but here on Earth, Atlantis is but a legend. There never was any real proof of its existence, and no one has ever found the city."  
  
There was a lengthy pause before Ecco spoke again. "But, if this is true, then why do you look so much like the Atlanteans depicted in the statues of old? And where did you get your knowledge of machinery?"  
  
Nicholas pushed his glasses up on the bridge of his nose. "Now, hold on a second. Let's work this through step-by-step." Donovan started to speak, but Nicholas held a finger up to his lips, signaling him to be quiet.  
  
"First off, Ecco, where are you from?"  
  
Ecco pondered this for a moment. "Well, here, I suppose. Albeit, I come from sometime in your past."  
  
"WAAAY back in your past, if my feelings are correct," he thought to himself.  
  
Donovan's mind kicked into overdrive at this comment. "So it's true! Time itself can be controlled just as easily as space! Now that I think about it, the form in which he entered the ocean back at the boat equates nicely with the test functions we were doing back at the lab..."  
  
While Donovan went over temporal field equations in his head, Nicholas tapped his chin with his forefinger. "So, you're saying that you time-traveled, then, Ecco?" he asked.  
  
"Well, yes. I think that I traveled into the future... although I am not sure of the length of time I have transversed..."  
  
"Is this the first occurance of your time-traveling?" Nicholas asked, glancing towards Donovan, who appeared to be wrapping up his calculations. "Have you traveled, say, into the past before?"  
  
"I have, in fact," replied Ecco. He glanced at Trellia, who was currently occupied with trying to catch a small fish. "The Asterite sent me into the past once... he gave me a song that would take me back 55 million years..."  
  
"Holy hell, 55 million years!" Donovan exclaimed, rudely awakened from his reverie. "That's incredible..."  
  
Nicholas, as usual, kept a level head. "Can you perhaps describe what the environment was like, Ecco, when you traveled to the past?"  
  
Ecco thought back to his first and only trip into the past. "It was... ancient. A red sun hung low over the sky, and the jellyfish and eels were HUGE. There were some fish with long, pointed teeth, shelled things that swam like lightning, and a humongous, winged creature that carried me from pond to pond."  
  
Nicholas sighed. "Ecco, you've pretty much described the Cretaceous period, which was a VERY long time ago... I think it ended 65 million years ago, in fact, and began -"  
  
"130 million years ago," Donovan interrupted. "Which means that if you really went back 55 million years, then you could be anywhere from 10 to around 60 million years old... at least from our standpoint." He brushed the back of his hand against his forehead, it was starting to get hot outside under the Florida sun.  
  
"Have I really traveled that far?" Ecco asked himself, thinking back to his home, with crystal clear water, waving palms, plentiful fish...  
  
"I really have traveled far beyond the time of the dolphin-fliers..."  
  
Nicholas composed his thoughts and continued. "Allright, now that we have a very general idea of where you're from, can you tell us how you managed to travel through time? None of us have managed it yet..."  
  
"That's debatable," thought Donovan, but decided to say nothing.  
  
"Certainly, Nicholas... I basically time-traveled through two different methods. The first was using the time machine that was located in Atlantis, and the second seemed to stem from the powers of the Asterite himself..."  
  
"A time machine I can understand," said Donovan, "but this Asterite... is he like your god or something? You mentioned him before, I think."  
  
Ecco paused before continuing. "The Asterite may very well be a god, but we do not treat him as such. We worship Delphinus as most dolphins do, but she is immaterial, you can feel her influence but you cannot see her... The Asterite you can talk to, and he actually has a physical form, but as far as I know, he is immortal... in fact, he is alive on this planet now, and we must find him!" Ecco grew agitated once more, churning his tail up and down. "I must find the Asterite to get the answers to my questions!"  
  
Nicholas held up a hand. "Calm down there, chief. We can help you find your Asterite if he really is alive... can you explain what he looks like, perhaps?"  
  
Ecco calmed down slightly. "I suppose I could... he's composed of two strings of globes that circle around each other in a strange sort of dance. Each globe is about half as long as me, and are painted in four different colors with an overlay of mottled brown."  
  
Donovan groaned at that. "Damnit, could this day get any stranger?"  
  
Nicholas turned his head and peered at Donovan. "What's the matter, Rescii? Too much information to handle?"  
  
Donovan shook his head. "No, it's not that... although that is just the teeniest bit stressful. No, what bugs me is that this dolphin just perfectly described the Indestructibles..."  
  
There was a pause.  
  
"The WHAT?!" exclaimed Nicholas and Ecco simultaneously.  
  
"Mmmf?" added Trellia, who was munching on a fish and wondering what all the commotion was about. 


	6. Lost and found

/- As you may have noticed, there was no chapter uploaded last night, which was because I was doing a bit of... research. However, I have today off, so if you're lucky, I'll put up two chapters...  
  
What can I say, I have a dedication to my readers (yes, all two of you. =P ).  
  
In any case, I spent last night playing through both Genesis games, and learned a couple of interesting facts.  
  
First, the comment the Asterite makes about sending Ecco back 55 million years is accurate. The logic that Ecco comes from the past stems from the fact that the last prehistoric time period, the Cretaceous, ended 65 million years ago, so this means that Ecco must be at least 10 million years old, right? Right?  
  
Also, in Tides of Time, the Asterite DOES say that the time machine cannot be used to go into the future, although I didn't write down the exact wording. HOWEVER, this is in fact a good thing, as it meshes with a plot point I had been saving, as you'll see below.  
  
Of course, I'm going to have to reveal this point sooner than I'd intended, but what the hell, I've got dozens of ideas. =P  
  
Now, prepare for the most backstory-intensive chapter yet...  
  
Happy Reading! -- Icebreaker -/  
  
There was silence on the pier, so complete you could hear the rustling of the wind through the palm fronds down the beach.  
  
"Rescii, just what, exactly, are these Indestructibles?"  
  
Donovan reached up with his hand to brush the back of his head. "Well, there's a good possibility that they're what Ecco here just described..."  
  
"So you know where to find the Asterite, then?" asked Ecco.  
  
The young astrophysicist shrugged. "Well, maybe. There's a story behind this, but you probably won't understand it much, Ecco... though hopefully Nicholas will," he said, glancing at the old man.  
  
Ecco nodded and glanced at Trellia. "They're probably going to talk in machine-terms," he whispered towards her. "Are you adept at understanding this?"  
  
Trellia threw back her head and gulped down the fish that was in her mouth. "Sometimes, Nicholas will mumble to himself in some strange language when he's working with the insides of those boxes," she whispered, pointing a fin at the one in front of them. "My advice, you just wait till it's over. I've tried to gain insight into the terminology, with no success."  
  
Ecco nodded and turned toward the box again. "Let them talk in their weird, human languages then. As long as they can take me to the Asterite, I don't care what their topic of conversation is."  
  
Above the surface of the water, Nicholas took off his glasses and rubbed them against his sleeve. "Allright, Rescii, just what is all this nonsense about?"  
  
Donovan sighed and leaned forward, propping his elbows against his thighs. "Well, as you may already know, after finishing my graduate studies I was hired by the Department of Defense..."  
  
Nicholas raised an eyebrow. "That's news to me. So what'd they hire you for, your research or something different?"  
  
"Well, there was that, and I had taken out a few patents on some exotic devices... anyway, doesn't matter," Donovan said, waving his hand in a dismissive gesture. "What DOES matter is that, in my line of work, I've learned of several... artifacts that the government has, one group of which is called the Indestructibles."  
  
Nicholas nodded. "I see... and how did you come to find these artifacts?"  
  
"Let's see if I can remember... I think, back in the seventies, there was a Navy destroyer that was doing routine patrol in the northern Pacific, and all of its electronics suddenly sputtered and died. They brought in some technicians to see what the problem was, but any diagnostic equipment that was brought onto the ship died as well. Eventually, one of the sailors noticed that the magnetic compasses on the ship were going haywire, pointing in erratically different directions than they should've."  
  
"The conclusion was that there was severe electro-magnetic interference in the area, although no one could figure out a natural cause for this. So they brought in some divers armed with EM-radiation detection equipment, of which the sensitivity had to be turned down so far that an EMP would look like a small walkie-talkie in comparison."  
  
"They dove down and eventually found a large globe on the seafloor, that pretty much looked like Ecco described it, except it was a light grey in color. They then proceeded to bring it back to Los Alamos for study, and had it encased in a lead box with walls three feet thick so it wouldn't disturb the sensitive electronics there."  
  
"The globe had two interesting characteristics, the first of which was the fact that it resisted any probing whatsoever. They tried probing with x-rays, gamma rays, you name it, they probably tried it. They eventually decided to drill the globe to see what was inside, but the bit broke. A diamond-lattice reinforced drill bit, that had been known to make a hole in the hardest materials known to man, broke when trying to use it against this globe."  
  
"And no matter what you try, you can't make a dent in the damn thing. You can try melting it, freezing it, cutting it, drilling it, they tried lasers, hydraulic presses, rail guns... nothing worked. The climax of the whole thing was when they dropped a tactical nuke on it out on our testing site on Macross Island, and after the smoke cleared, the globe was still sitting there, as shiny as ever. Didn't even pick up any radiation from the blast."  
  
"That's why they're called the Indestructibles, because the globe, as near as we can tell, is probably going to last forever. Our best materials engineers can't make heads or tails of the thing, try as they might."  
  
"The second interesting characteristic was the fact that, upon inspection of the electro-magnetic field it generated, it was mostly concentrated into lines. I mean, sure, it threw out strong interference in all directions, but the bulk of it was contained in lines of force that appeared to continue for quite some distance... you following me, here?"  
  
Nicholas was staring out towards the horizon, and he nodded slightly. "I think so, I've done my share of study into field equations back in the day. The rest of it is a little harder to swallow, but... go on."  
  
Donovan nodded in turn and continued. "Well, the head of the committee on this thing had the bright idea to follow the force lines and see where they led to. The first one they followed went out into the Mediterranean Sea somewhere... they loaded up in a helicopter with civilian markings and tracking equipment, and dove down to find... another globe."  
  
"This pretty much shocked the subsection of Los Alamos that was working on that topic, and they petitioned the Department of Defense for a special ops team to go out and retrieve the rest of the globes, as some were apparently located in foreign-legislated seas. The DoD thought it would be worthwhile, they had the idea of keeping one globe on earth and sending another into space, using the electro-magnetic line between the two globes in order to fry Russian satellites. The Russians wouldn't know that we had an EM generator of that magnitude, and so we'd be able to hit their satellites with plausible deniability, claiming solar flares or some other such nonsense."  
  
"In any case, the DoD agreed and sent out teams to follow the rest of the lines... all forty-six of them."  
  
"In the meantime, the boys back at the labs decided to do some experiments to see how the two globes they had behaved in relation to one another. They found that when one came into a certain distance of the other, the EM fields started fluctuating oddly... as if the two globes were communicating with each other. It was really weird, and so they decided to see what would happen if the globes were actually to come into contact with each other..."  
  
"One fateful day, they actually did put the globes into contact. The field strength went off the charts, and the globes started to move of their own volition... they spun around each other and hovered about three feet off the floor, and the collective jaw of Los Alamos dropped to the ground."  
  
"When they reviewed the video feed later, they found that the globes actually changed color to a half-grey, half-green state for about a tenth of a second, before cycling through four different colors as Ecco described, and finally settling on red and blue. The field strength eventually decreased to a manageable level, although it was twice as strong as a single globe."  
  
"In addition, the field started to reach outward in random directions, and started to pulse regularly. The techs ran it through an algorithm, and discovered the direction in which the field was strongest at any given time was TRULY random. It's impossible to get true randomness with machinery, as it's always based on a seed, like time, capacitance charges, etcetera. So, they came to think of the pair of globes as sort of a living being, and an extraterrestrial one at that."  
  
"The whole set of globes wasn't assembled until sometime in the late eighties, but the Alamos guys didn't want to put all of them together as they were afraid of what the completed creature might do. One of the committee members suggested pulling apart the two globes that were currently spinning, but he was outvoted because they weren't sure what would happen to the potential energy between them. An explosion, perhaps? No one knew."  
  
"Last I knew, they were moved to a secure warehouse up in Atlanta, I think... the DoD eventually gave up on their satellite idea after the dissolution of the Soviet Union, as it was decided the risks outweighed the benefits... and that, good sirs, is all I know about the Indestructibles."  
  
"And it's classified by the way, Dr. Card," he added, scowling at Nicholas.  
  
The old man chuckled slightly. "I wouldn't worry, Rescii... after all, who would I have it to share with?"  
  
Donovan nodded and looked back towards the water, seeing Ecco against the contours of the sea-floor.  
  
"While I wasn't able to understand a good portion of that," Ecco said after a slight pause, "I was able to glean the fact that you have all of the Asterite's globes, and that one pair has already started spinning?"  
  
"As near as I can tell, Ecco, that's the guy you're looking for," said Donovan.  
  
"This would explain why the Asterite seemed so weak when he spoke to me," thought Ecco. "If only one pair is together... I must reunite him with his other pairs, if we are to seek his help."  
  
"Well, now, I haven't had a day like this for a while," said Nicholas, as he popped out a crick in his back. "Aliens, indestructible globes, and a time-traveling dolphin from the past. It's the kind of day that you wish you wouldn't have skipped your morning coffee on, eh, Rescii?"  
  
"You could say that," chuckled Donovan.  
  
Something in Nicholas's sentence caught at Ecco's memory. "I'm a time-traveling dolphin from the past," he thought, "... so that means I traveled into the future... and I used the time machine to get here..."  
  
"Wait," said Ecco. "Something isn't right."  
  
"Well, I think we can all agree on that, Ecco," said Nicholas, staring down at the dolphin. "But did you have something specific in mind?"  
  
"Yes," said Ecco. "The Asterite once told me that the time machine cannot be used to go into the future, and yet, somehow, I used it to travel here... and the Asterite has never been wrong before..."  
  
"Impossible," said Donovan, with a look of contempt on his face. "The laws of temporal mechanics state that it's just as easy to travel into the future as it is into the past, perhaps even more so."  
  
"But the Asterite has never steered me wrong before! Are you absolutely sure that I'm in the future, from my timeline?"  
  
"Positive, if what you've told us is all true. That time machine you used should be able to travel into the future just fine... unless..." Donovan's eyes got slightly wider as he continued. "Unless... Schvolenberg was right..."  
  
"Damnit Rescii, you've gotta learn to quit muttering to yourself. Why don't you share what's going on with the rest of the kids in the class, eh?" Nicholas asked, crossing his arms as he did so.  
  
"Well, there was a scientist named Schvolenberg who wrote some theories on the nature of time... his most famous hypothesis was the theory of 'Dual-Time,' or the thought that multiple timelines could exist simultaneously. If this were to happen, it would be impossible to travel into the future using normal methods, since the 'real' timeline hadn't been decided yet.... Now, Schvolenberg did lay out schematics of a device that would allow travel into a timeline of the operator's choosing, but it's quite possible that the machine you used wasn't equipped with one."  
  
"Ecco," intoned Nicholas, "was there any evidence of multiple timelines from your standpoint, or is Donovan just rambling on?"  
  
"Well, now that you mention it, there was in fact," replied Ecco. "There were two possible futures, one in which dolphins evolved into fliers and reigned supreme, and another in which the Vortex ruled."  
  
"Now, the way I see it," Donovan said, "is that your Asterite decided not to give you the full details on the MECHANICS of why you couldn't travel into the future, he just told you you couldn't use the time machine to do it. Makes sense if you were on a schedule for some reason. From your descriptions, it sounds like you didn't mean to travel to this specific point in time, you probably just told the time machine to take you as far in the future as it possibly could... and since the only thing that prevents travel into the future is multiple timelines..."  
  
"Then that means that we're experiencing multiple timelines now," Ecco finished. "The only question I have is, are we in the dark future, or the bright future?"  
  
A silence once again settled upon the group, as each member sorted through their own thoughts.  
  
"Well, I guess that settles it, then," said Nicholas finally, setting the translator box on the pier and standing up slowly.  
  
"Settles what?" Donovan asked.  
  
"Well, you say that this Asterite fellow is most likely in Atlanta, right?"  
  
"Yeah..." said Donovan.  
  
"And you, Ecco, said that the Asterite would be the only one able to answer our questions, right?"  
  
"Yes, that's correct," said the dolphin.  
  
"Well, then..." said Nicholas, and grinned.  
  
Donovan's eyes widened, and his face grew a shade whiter. "No... you don't mean..."  
  
"Oh, I think I do," said the old doctor, balancing on his walking stick. "It's time for a... ROAD TRIP!"  
  
Ecco was confused as he turned to Trellia. "I don't suppose you'd know what a 'road trip' is?" he asked, hopefully.  
  
Trellia giggled. "No, but I'm excited already!" 


	7. Saddle up

/- Well. Guess I b0rked my daily update schedule, huh? =P

Too bad writing doesn't pay the bills, or else I'd be able to take more days off and just... write. Those published authors, thinking they're so smug...

And besides, can't let Ovo have top bidding on the Ecco page, now can we? ;) Just kidding, of course. I plan to read through your story when I get the time, and review it in turn.

I can't think of anything to say... I mean, sure, there might be some plot holes, but I think I've got an explanation for each one, and they'll be shown in due time. =P So, until next time...

Happy Reading! -- Icebreaker -/

"Doc, you've gotta be kidding," Donovan was saying. "I mean, I don't think I could even get into the warehouse without a good excuse..."

The sun glinted off of Nicholas's eyes as he held up a single finger, his other hand resting on his walking stick. "Now, one problem at a time," he said, grinning. "We sure as hell aren't doing any good just sitting here, and if there are aliens hanging somewhere in orbit, we need to get the ball rolling and get some answers."

"I'm sure the Asterite will give us the answers we require, if that's what you're worried about," interjected Ecco. "Assuming I can put him together again, that is..."

Donovan smiled at that. "A modern-day Humpty Dumpty, huh?" he mumbled.

"Allright, suppose that we get to Atlanta," Donovan said, speaking up. "Suppose, even, that we manage to put this Asterite fellow together without any trouble. What kind of questions would we ask it? I haven't the faintest idea, and the Asterite might be a little distrustful of us anyway..."

Nicholas nodded sagely. "But of course. And that's why Ecco will be asking most of the questions."

Donovan's eyes popped out slightly. "Uh, Nicholas, dolphins require this little thing called water. And it's noticeably absent out on the highway."

Nicholas's grin never faltered. "Yes, you're right about that, Rescii... however, I happen to have a special trailer that carries enough water to transport a dolphin across land. Got it from Seaworld through slightly... less-than-legal means." His brow furrowed as he continued his thoughts. "Now, it's designed for just one dolphin, but I don't see any reason it can't carry two if they're friendly."

Donovan crossed his arms, thinking of any other possible objections. "Well, what are we gonna use to tow the damn thing?" he asked, and Nicholas nodded his head towards the beach.

"I think that Jeep over there ought to do nicely. Last I checked, the company was always touting about how their towing power was the best in their class or something, right?"

"MY Jeep?" asked Donovan, taking a step back. "Uh, I'm not so sure about this... I mean, I've already managed to beach a boat today..."

"Nonsense, Rescii, it'll be just fine. Now pull that vehicle over to the back of my house and we'll get it hitched up." Nicholas took his walking stick in hand and began hobbling towards his bungalow, up on the white sand.

Donovan was still in a mild state of shock, but eventually he sighed and hung his head. The old man was right, to a certain extent... they did have to get moving, and soon, at that. But still... why did it have to be HIS car?

"Trellia, Ecco, you guys just chill here for a second, allright? Me and Nicholas are gonna get some equipment ready, and then we'll go see this Asterite guy."

Ecco nodded. "Of course, Donovan. Take all the time you need," he said, before turning to Trellia and regarding her closely with one eye.

"Trellia, please tell me that you've traveled... over land before?" he asked, with a pleading note in his voice.

Trellia thought for a second. "Well, I think I have, when I was younger. They put you in this big container and you move across land, even though you're not swimming." She grinned slightly. "It was actually kind of fun, if I remember right."

Ecco went to the surface for a breath of fresh air before coming back down again. He couldn't shake a certain amount of nervousness from his head about this whole "traveling over land" thing.

"Ridiculous," he thought to himself. "I have fought the hardest enemies that the galaxy has to offer, not to mention Time itself. So why should I be worried about a little sojourn inland?"

This line of thought didn't help him feel any better.

- - - - - - - - - -

"Allright, Rescii, go ahead and pull it back a little more... little more... just a little – Okay, stop. That's perfect."

Nicholas was standing next to what can only be considered a giant water tank, made out of a translucent plastic material. The old man watched as Donovan parked the Jeep in the shade of Nicholas's house.

"So, you're gonna help with hitching the thing?" asked Donovan, stepping out of the driver's side door.

"Certainly not," snorted Nicholas, brushing the back of his hand across his head. "An old man such as myself, doing heavy lifting... hell, my bones could just plain shatter on account of this osteoporosis thing I keep hearing about."

"My ass," said Donovan, looking from the hitch to the clamp on the water tank. "You're probably in better shape than even me, Nicholas, with the exception of that leg."

Nicholas grinned as he looked over the operation. "That may be true, but I don't have to admit it. Now, I'm going to see about filling up this tank... I hope the pump still works..."

He hobbled off around the side of the house as Donovan tried to figure out how he was going to get the clamp onto the ball of the trailer hitch. He eventually settled on using a nearby steel pipe as a lever with a cinder block as a fulcrum, and had just managed to get the tank fully attached before Nicholas calmly came around the house and put the end of a fire hose in the tank.

"A fire hose? You got enough water pressure to fill this thing in the next couple of days or so?"

Nicholas grinned and shrugged. "I don't know... let's see what happens when I press this switch." He pulled back a lever on the hose, and a HUGE amount of water came gushing out, spreading across the bottom of the tank within seconds as the water level rose relatively quickly.

"I don't think you can get that much water out of a well..." Donovan scratched his head. "Say, Nicholas, where do you get your water anyway?"

Nicholas hunkered down on his walking stick and pushed his glasses up on the bridge of his nose. "Old fire hydrant, up inland about two miles," he yelled, trying to be heard over the roar of the rising water. "The pipes down to my house are all buried about a foot below ground. The hydrant itself obviously still works, although I don't think it's ever been used legitimately in all the years I've been here."

Donovan shook his head and smirked. "Damn hermits... you've gotta give them credit for being resourceful, though."

"In any case, this should fill up in a couple minutes. I'm going to try and find a tarp to put over this thing... transporting dolphins out on the freeway might garner unwanted attention," Nicholas said, before pointing towards the pier. "In the meantime, ask Trellia to retrieve the translator from the seafloor, and bring both units here to me. With any luck, we'll be ready to go before the hour's up."

Donovan did as asked, getting the box from Trellia, who balanced it amazingly on her nose as she brought it to the surface. He brought back both units to the tank, which was now almost full. Nicholas stood beside it with a massive blue tarp, secured with ropes to one side of the trailer.

"Excellent, excellent," said Nicholas, taking one of the boxes from Donovan and throwing it into the tank. "Don't want to lose communication while out on the road, I'm sure we'll have a lot of explaining to do about any works of Man we happen to pass."

He walked over to the passenger-side door of the Jeep and threw the other box in. "Now, let's roll this thing back into the water and let our less-land inclined friends in, hrmm?"

Donovan shrugged. "You appear to be the authority on the subject, so let's go, I guess."

They backed the tank slowly into the ocean, enough to make an easy jump for the dolphins, but not enough to either lose any water, or prevent it from making it back onto the beach. The Jeep didn't have enough horsepower to pull a tank that size, full of water, back out once it was fully immersed in the ocean. The two humans shut off the vehicle, and stepped out, beckoning for the dolphins to jump into the tank.

"I think they're trying to signal us for something," mused Ecco. "Any idea what we're supposed to do?"

"I should think that's fairly obvious," said Trellia, as she rolled her eyes. "All you have to do is jump in that tank... I mean, you CAN jump, right?"

Ecco tried to keep from laughing, and settled for a wide smile instead. "Oh, I think so... you needn't worry about me."

Trellia nodded. "Right, well, just to make sure, I'll go first so you can see how it's done, okay?" She swam a little ways back, then shot forward, doing a small breach so as to get above the rim of the tank. She landed with a small splash, then stuck her head out of the water and smiled at Ecco.

"Now it's YOUR turn to see how it's done," Ecco thought to himself, laughing inwardly. He swam back a modest distance, and then shot forward at least twice as fast as Trellia had done. He knew that jumping too far horizontally could land him past the tank and onto the beach, so he settled for jumping as high as he could and letting his momentum carry him over the rim.

He burst out of the water, and he felt for a moment as if he could touch the sky itself. He kept going up and up and up... almost for what seemed like an eternity. When he finally started to come back down, he turned himself so he was facing the tank, and realized his fatal mistake.

"That water is a bit shallower than it looked from the ocean..." he thought, eying up the water level in the tank. He saw Trellia's wide eyed look, with Donovan and Nicholas staring on in similar expressions. "Let's see if I can get out of this without undue embarrassment..."

Just after he made contact with the surface of the water in the tank, he twisted, trying to turn his vertical momentum into horizontal momentum. The water was just too shallow, though, and he couldn't help but squeak a bit as his underside slapped against the bottom of the tank with a sharp sting. As he was shaking his head to clear his pain, his newfound horizontal momentum carried him into the tank wall, where he earned himself a nasty bump on the noggin.

Trellia swam over as fast as she could. "Ecco! Ecco, are you all right?"

"Yes," Ecco muttered, forcing a smile. "I'm just fine, miscalculated the jump, is all."

Trellia sighed. "I showed you how to do it, didn't I? Oh well, you'll get better with more practice." She mulled over something in her head for a moment. "I've gotta say though, that was quite an impressive height for a jump..."

"Ecco, can you hear me? Is everything allright? Trellia?" The box in the corner of the tank started babbling, its artificial song echoing off of the plastic walls.

"Yes, Nicholas, everything is fine," Trellia said. "He just took a couple of bumps, but nothing too serious."

"Good, good. In that case, prepare yourselves, we're about to start heading out."

"You know, Nicholas, I've never seen any dolphin jump as high as that one did," Donovan said, looking over at the old man in the passenger seat with the black translator box in his lap. "There's something special about him, I'm sure..."

Nicholas nodded. "While your experience with dolphins is limited at best, I think you're right about Ecco... there is indeed something special about him." He laid his walking stick in the back seat, leaning back as he did so. "Now, shall we get out of here? Time's a wasting, you know."

Donovan searched his pocket for his keys. "Allright, but I get to pick the radio station." He turned the key in the ignition, the Jeep springing to life, and some form of techno blared out of the speakers, with heavy synthesizer riffs and an obnoxious bassline. Nicholas made a face, but said nothing.

"Atlanta, here we come!" said Donovan, throwing the Jeep into gear and pulling away from the beach.


	8. Dreams within dreams

/- Sorry about the lack of updates. Been wrestling with putting Gentoo on my new laptop, so I could write from ANYWHERE.

A variety of complications occurred, which resulted in me giving up and just putting Windows on the thing. So, here you are: the first chapter I write on the new machine, from a fast food joint, no less. :)

Happy Reading! -- Icebreaker -/

A massive amount of metal and glass with eighteen wheels came roaring down the highway. It's length seemed eternal, and one could not get in front of it nor behind it in time. The shoulder was ending, he was frantically looking for a space, the semi not seeming to care...

"Can I merge there?! Oh, shit, this guy isn't slowing down..."

"Rescii, stop, wait, you'll never make it... Rescii... RESCII!"

Donovan slammed on the accelerator, slowly gaining on the semi to his left. He squinted his eyes and tightened his hold on the steering wheel, calculating his speed against how much distance remained. The lane was merging into the freeway just a couple meters ahead... almost there... too close yet... and... NOW.

The Jeep swerved into the freeway, the water tank it was towing behind it just narrowly missing the front grill of a Mack truck. The trucker honked his horn as the Jeep continued gaining speed, putting a good amount of distance between itself and the semi.

Donovan looked over his right shoulder, craning to see around the water tank's outline. "Well, looks like we survived that one, huh?"

Nicholas's eyes were closed behind his glasses, and his skin looked a bit more pale than it usually was. "Even though I haven't touched a car in several years... and my lisence is probably expired... I still call driving on the way home."

It was raining somewhat outside, and large drops were collecting on the windshield and windows. Headlights shone through the dark, overcast world outside, which marked a stark contrast to the warm, dry interior of Donovan's Jeep.

Nicholas twisted around to regard the black, metal box on the floor between the two front seats, which rolled around somewhat as Donovan changed lanes. "You guys allright back there, after that little maneuver?"

There was a pause before the box spoke up. "We're fine," said Ecco. "Slightly jarred, perhaps, but that's it."

"Good, good," Nicholas said, leaning back in his seat. "We should be there in another hour, so just hang tight back there, allright?"

"Will do, Nicholas," answered Trellia. "We're getting a chance to talk back here, anyway."

Nicholas grinned and turned towards Donovan. "Now that that's out of the way, how about letting me see that bag of potato chips, eh?"

Donovan seemed lost in the current bit of techno-trance that was pulsing out of the speakers, but was still able to reach down with his left hand and grab a loose bag of Fritos. He tossed it across to Nicholas as he squinted his eyes, trying to look through the downpour.

"So let me get this straight, old man," said Donovan, turning down the stereo after a solo piece had finished, while Nicholas crunched thoughtfully on some corn chips. "Your plan is to simply roll up to this installation, flash my identification, and hope that we get in?"

Nicholas grinned around some unchewed corn fragments. "Rescii, you've been living by the rules all your life. You might be surprised how far a little fast-talking and misdirection will go." He turned his gaze towards the side window as they went over a small bridge, the valley below just barely being visible through the weather. "Besides, even if you can't get in, there are other... more drastic methods we can take to get access."

Donovan shook his head as he passed a blue sedan. "I dunno, Nicholas. You can't really say that you've raided anything on this scale before, I mean, they've got security up the ying-yang, I KNOW how they operate..."

Nicholas held up a hand. "One thing at a time, Rescii. If they don't let you in – and they really should, if you've got as high a level of clearance as you say you do – then we'll deal with that problem when we get to it. Worrying ahead of time doesn't do anyone any favors."

Donovan shrugged. "I sure as hell hope you know what you're doing, Doc..."

The old man pushed at his glasses with his index finger and settled down in his seat. "I'm not really sure I know what's going to happen any better than you do, I'm just better at keeping a level head about it. Now, can we change this godawful radio station yet? It's been rather static-filled for the last few miles."

"Uh, remember Doc, I get to pick the radio stations, seeing as how it's my car that got drug into this mess," said Donovan, reaching for the stereo system.

"Oh, I don't know about that," said Nicholas, slapping Donovan's hand away. "A man can only take so much of this techno-crap before his brain starts oozing out of his ears."

While the two humans bickered in the Jeep itself, Trellia and Ecco floated next to each other in the trailing water tank. It was dark inside, as the tarp prevented any outside light from getting in, but a red glow from the trailer's brake lights managed to bathe the interior in an infrared hue.

"So tell me, what happened after you assembled the Asterite?" asked Trellia, turning her head inside the rather cramped quarters to regard her new friend.

"Well," said Ecco, "it turned out he was not complete as of yet. He informed me that the Vortex had stolen his final pair of globes, and taken them into the dark future, and of course it was up to ME to go and get them..."

"Oh, my!" squeaked Trellia in a fearful tone. "I don't think I could've done it... I mean, you had to be pretty scared, right?"

Ecco grinned. He had spent the last few hours telling this lovely dolphin of his many adventures, and was feeling truly happy for the first time since he had been frolicking with his pod in Home Bay. Trellia was a perfect listener, as well, she gasped in all the right places, and added comments such as, "No way. Really?" or "I don't believe it." It was truly a joy to share his many experiences with her.

"Certainly I was scared somewhat, and I still am whenever I time travel. But I had an extra reason to be scared: I had to get an actual Vortex to CARRY me into the future, since the Atlantean time machine wasn't equipped with a device as Donovan described..."

Trellia shook her head. "I swear, Ecco, out of all the dolphins I've ever met, you're the only one that could've done all this."

Ecco beamed. "Why, thank you, Trellia. I suppose it did take a certain strength of character..."

There was a short silence wherein he noticed that Trellia was shivering somewhat. True, it WAS downright chilly with the storm going on, but compared to swimming through the northern ice caps to find Big Blue, this really wasn't a problem.

"Pretty cold in here, huh?" asked Ecco.

Trellia nodded. "I wish either of those two humans would've thought to include some sort of heating machine before we set out..."

Ecco considered alerting the translator box to get Donovan to stop and see about the water temperature, but then he had a grand idea. "I can ask her to snuggle up against me for body warmth!" he thought to himself. "I mean, she is a rather attractive dolphin... and this might just be the move I need..."

"You know, Trellia," said Ecco, clearing his throat and speaking aloud, "you could, perhaps, if you're cold enough... y'know, come over here, and..."

At that moment, an all but rusted-out metal box underneath the tank began pumping water through two hoses that Ecco hadn't noticed before. He could feel the warmer water begin to flow into the chamber, and apparently so could Trellia.

"Ahhhh," Trellia sighed, as she shook off the relative stupor that the cold had put her in. "That feels nice. I guess Nicholas did install a heating machine, but it's old and didn't turn on quite as fast as I would've liked..." She turned her head after a bit to regard Ecco once more. "Now then, Ecco, weren't you saying something before that turned on?"

Insofar as it is possible for dolphins to blush, Ecco did it. "Er, uh, nothing really. Just wanted to know if you wanted to switch spots, as the water over here seemed a bit warmer than over there."

Trellia smiled. "Well, thanks for the thought, Ecco. Seems like you're as nice as you are brave."

Ecco smiled in turn, but mentally he slammed his head against the wall. Not for the first time, he pondered the irony that he could take on the greatest foes that the Tides of Time dared throw at him, yet if he was placed near an attractive girl, he'd go as shy as a sea anenome when a hungry one swims by.

"But anyway, Ecco. So you had to get kidnapped by aliens, in effect, to travel into the future?"

Ecco shook himself out of his feelings of self-pity. "Right, right... and as you mentioned, I was a bit scared, but not too much. So I swam to the only place I thought there would be Vortex creatures, Lunar Bay we called it..."

The Jeep continued on through the rain.

* * *

"Have there been any temporal fluctuations?"

"Not yet, Queen, nor does the probability matrix point to there being one in a recent period of time."

A tall, insect-like creature presided in front of a semi-circle console, its four arms working various knobs and holographic displays on the bio-screen.

The room it was in can best be equated to the bridge of a ship in Earth terms. There were several displays pulsing against the walls, showing orbit trajectories, calculated falls, and potential velocities, and on the front wall was a transparent viewport that showed the rocky, pockmarked surface of Luna. The ship was currently parked in geosynchronous orbit over what Earth called the "dark side of the moon," and as such, no radar or visual means had been able to pick them up.

"This complicates things... perhaps their machine is not fully functional as of yet..."

"That is a possibility, my Queen. Of course, it is another possibility that the fluctuations are so small that we cannot detect them from the other side of this planetoid..."

"I have thought of this. You know not to correct me," the Queen warned, sending a mild electric current through the insecticoid's brain.

The console operator stumbled somewhat before regaining its composure. The Queen was not in the bridge with it, nor even on the same ship. She controlled all the ships in her fleet from afar, just as a chess master does with his pieces.

"I am sorry for my transgression, Queen. It will not happen again."

"See that it doesn't. Also, ready your shock troops, the timeline cannot be delayed any longer. Deploy to major human population centers on the continent they mark as 'Europe.' Should reinforcement prove necessary, Delta and Theta squads will be located to the immediate east and south of your position. Understood?"

"Understood, my Queen. Activating now."

And with the press of a button, the dark age of humanity began...

* * *

Jeremy Gloval was relaxing in the guard booth of the Federal Government Warehouse JF-14, munching on a hamburger while some Johnny Cash music played out of a dusty old boombox. It had stopped raining, Gloval observed, and the sun had come out to shine upon the stack of papers cluttering his tiny desk.

It was an easy job, as almost no one came out to this warehouse save routine techs and such. True, there was that rather important scientist this morning with a team of contractors, but the rest of his schedule for the day looked clear. Honestly, he didn't know why they bothered to keep him around on days like this... no one was scheduled to come in, so why keep a guard there? Sure, there's the emergency override for people not on the schedule, but that had NEVER been used as long as he had been there...

So, imagine his surprise when, looking up after a particularly juicy bite of cheeseburger, he noticed that a Jeep was coming down through the compound, straight off the freeway. It had some sort of trailer in back, covered with a tarp, and it kept right on going up to the gate... finally stopping in front of the guard bar.

Gloval put down his burger carefully and stepped out of the booth, locking the door tight behind him. He then went over to the driver's side window of the Jeep and knocked, which summarily caused the window to roll down.

"Uh, sir? I don't have you on the schedule to get into the warehouse today... are you sure you're at the right place?"

Donovan glanced at Nicholas, who nodded, then reached into his back pocket for his wallet. "As you can see here," snorted Donovan, flipping open his wallet and showing his Class B clearance badge, "I'm quite obviously qualified to come in. The case is an emergency down in Block 3, might've been some leakage with one of the artifacts there... short notice and all of that..."

Gloval straightened up and crossed his arms, and Donovan could see that the man was not buying it. "Well, first off," said the guard, "even Level B's aren't allowed to come in unannounced, you have to be level A or above. Second, there is no Block 3, each section is designated by letter." He puffed his nose, quite annoyed that this hotshot had interrupted his lunch. "Now, I suggest you turn this thing back around before I get a better look at that badge and decide to write down your social security number."

Donovan sighed and looked over at Nicholas as he rolled up the window. "Well, I tried, Doc. Told you it wouldn't work out, you know."

Nicholas just grinned as he watched the guard return to the booth. "Not to fear, Rescii, this is going to be easier than I thought. First, as we were coming in, I noticed a few blind spots that the cameras along the perimeter didn't cover. We could, perhaps, drill through the fences in those areas -"

"Hold that thought, Nicholas," said Donovan, as he peered at a figure running towards the gate from inside the warehouse. "No... it couldn't be..."

He stepped out of the car and as soon as he opened the door, he could faintly hear the figure yelling his name as it ran. "Imagine running into him now, of all times.... TAKAGESHI!" Donovan yelled.

"Wait, now, what the hell's going on here?" asked Nicholas, stepping out of the car in turn.

After a few seconds, the figure managed to make it to the gate, and revealed himself to be a lanky Asian man in jeans and a black T-shirt. He bent over and propped his hands on his knees as he attempted to catch his breath.

"Donovan! Thank God I caught a glimpse of your car from over there... only man I know of with those kinds of custom headlights."

Donovan grinned and patted the hood of his Jeep. "Well, you know how it is, Takageshi, she's my pride and joy. What're you doing here, anyway?"

The gatehouse guard thought this a good time to step back out of his booth. "You're the Level A that came in this morning, right?" he asked, nodding at Takageshi, who nodded in turn as he stood up.

"Yep, that's me. Go ahead and lift the bar, guard, I'll vouch for these two... assuming he's with you, Donnie?" asked Takageshi, nodding towards Nicholas.

"He sure is, let me introduce you two..." Donovan started saying. Gloval mumbled something under his breath, but went back into his booth to raise the guard bar.

"No time for that, Donovan, and we'll get to what I'm doing here later. Right now all you need to know is that, and I know this is going to sound horribly silly, but... several major cities in Europe and Asia got glassed from orbit."

Donovan's jaw dropped, and even Nicholas managed a raised eyebrow as he hobbled around the front of the Jeep. "That's news indeed," quipped the old man.

Takageshi nodded impatiently. "Yes, but that's not all. There's also lots of spacecraft up there in orbit that we have no known radio signature on. It's not ours, the Russians and Chinese both claim null responsibility... Donovan, it is the NSA's opinion that Earth is being invaded by extraterrestrials."

"The aliens part is easy to swallow, as I just had a run-in with some this morning," mused Donovan, looking towards the warehouse. "The tough part is the fact we're being invaded, although I guess it was somewhat obvious they were hostile..."

Takageshi looked confused, then shook his head. "Whatever, you can explain it on the way back to section E. But Donovan," said Takageshi, grinning somewhat, "this little bit of news is sure to get some surprise out of you: They're launching Project Darkflare as soon as possible, down at the Cape."

Donovan's eyes widened and his face adopted a look of startled incredulity. "No... no fucking way... there's still too many unknown variables..."

Nicholas sighed loudly, so that everyone could hear him. "You know," he said, "just once I wish you kids would explain these terms before you started throwing them around."


	9. It's Burning Up

/- I'm not entirely dead yet... ;)

Happy reading! -- Icebreaker -/

The Jeep bounced across the asphalt, trailer in tow behind as it made its way toward a large warehouse surrounded by work crews. Donovan turned down the stereo with one hand, as he craned his neck around to look at Takegishi.

"So wait, Tak. If they've already started wiping out cities in Europe from orbit... how long have we got before the bastards make it over to North America?"

The lanky, Asian scientist leaned forward from his position in the back seat and cleared his throat. "Well, no one's really sure, Donnie. I mean, judging from our reports we've got from over there... They didn't try and salvage anything, really. Like their only purpose is destruction... shot the cities with some type of proton cannon, then sent down some hard-as-hell alien shock troops to clean out the evacuees... Take it through here, chief," he said, pointing forward through the warehouse's wide doors.

"But why? I mean, I'm all for a good science-fiction story, but it never made sense to me to have aliens just come in and kick the crap out of humanity for the hell of it," said Nicholas, as he looked out through the windows at the interior of the passing warehouse. More than anything, what stood out where the crates. Stacks upon stacks of crates, stretching as far as the eye could see...

"The Vortex could have harvested you for food if they wanted," spoke the box between the two front seats. Takageshi's eyes widened as Ecco continued. "They were terribly short on food during my time, and if they're being so wasteful as to kill... they must be in a hurry."

There was a momnent's pause as Nicholas and Donovan waited for Takageshi to ask the obvious question.

"Who's speaking through that box?"

Donovan raised his hand and scratched the back of his head. "Well, you know, long story... Dolphins in the trunk and all that."

The Asian scientist was about to comment on that when the cellphone at his side started beeping. He looked down at it, frowned, re-read the message. "Guys, things... just got a little more complicated."

"What's the deal, kid," asked Nicholas as he settled back in his seat.

"Well, apparently we've lost all communication with the European continent. Which means that not only are several key satellites knocked out of commission, but the trans-Atlantic cables must have been cut, as well... they're trying to bounce radio signals off the stratosphere, but no one's responding yet..."

Nicholas whistled. "Sounds rough," added Donovan.

"Well, that's not all, either. Moscow, New Dheli, Hong Kong, Bangkok, even Tokyo... all gone. Fucking gone." Takageshi paused for a minute and ran his hands back through his hair. "We're the only continent that hasn't been hit yet... and there are signs of contact in Seattle and Los Angelos..."

* * *

"Have you narrowed down the location yet?" came the all-encompassing voice.

The drone, working several different devices with his four arms, took a minute to formulate his reply. "Yes, my queen. We knew it was somewhere on this landmass the humans call 'North America,' but we have narrowed down the location to this spot on a rather peculiar peninsula."

The forward viewscreen, showing the Earth from the ship's point in orbit many miles above the surface, began to zoom in on the United States. Watching through the drone's very own eyes from a million lightyears away, she observed the viewscreen as it continued zooming in on the East Coast, onto Florida, and on down until she could at last see a nondescript complex of buildings, hidden by heavy woods on all sides. The screen flickered somewhat as it adjusted for cloudcover, but otherwise held steady.

"Very well. Pull all available teams from that European landmass and have them shipped to this coast. No orbital artillery will be used within that zone for fear of damaging the objective, so tell the warriors to be prepared. Keep fighting inland from the west, in case reinforcements are needed. Bombardment may take place until the western troops gain a proximity to the objective equal to 30 degrees. Understood?"

"Yes, my queen," thought the drone, and moved his arms to the instruments to make it so.

"Good. I want control of the objective by the end of the next kilocycle." And with that, her disembodied will turned to tend to the other members of her fleet.

* * *

"So this is it, huh?"

Donovan, Nicholas and Takageshi were standing in front of the Jeep, looking on as a work crew lined up something like forty crates in front of them. All of the crates looked to be made out of some dense metal, their dull sheen reflecting back some light from the bulbs above. Their size was all identical (i.e., massive) with the exception of one crate that seemed as large as four or five of the others.

The tarp on the Jeep's trailer had been pulled off and stashed in the back, allowing the pair of dolphins within to look out at the commotion. Takageshi was still prone to giving them wide-eyed looks, but after getting a short summary of the morning's events from Donovan and Dr. Card, he seemed at least willing to accept the situation.

"Yeah, Donnie, this is the full set," said Takageshi. "The Indestructables, in all their glory... Well, except, y'know. In boxes."

"So tell me, Ecco," said Nicholas, turning to face the dolphin tank as he adjusted the translator under his arm. "How do we go about putting this... thing... together?"

"Well..." mused Ecco. "We need water. Some sort of large water... holding thing that I can use to rebuild him. Unless we're anywhere close to an ocean, but I doubt you humans would have that much foresight."

Donovan's nostrils flared a bit. "Thanks for the vote of confidence there, buddy." He paused and thought a bit, before turning to Takageshi. "Hey, Tak, what's the water reservoir like here?"

Takageshi scrunched his eyebrows together as he thought. "Well, it was built during the sixties, when a real big nuclear scare was going on. All the government installations like this had their water tanks built into the ground with lead shielding around them in case of fallout... I think I saw the reservoir for this installation as we were coming in. Say, oh. Fifty feet deep, twenty feet wide?"

Ecco did an excited sort of barrel roll in the tank. "That's perfect! I could easily reassemble the Asterite with that much space..."

Trellia nodded. "Might even be enough space for me, if you need some help. Those things look heavy."

Takageshi looked at Donovan and Nicholas for approval, then turned toward the work crew. "Allright guys, new plan! Get the fork lifts and haul these crates outside, dump them in the reservoir tank. I'll be out to join you shortly... and haul ass, too, we're on a schedule." As the crew hurried to work, Takageshi's cellphone beeped again, and he turned down to look at its screen before looking up at his companions, face grim.

"Well, I hope you guys know what you're doing, and that you can do it fast... these aliens are moving in from the west coast, and have already reached Denver. Adding to that, North Carolina Radar Control has a shitload of pods coming in from the east... looks like they're done with Europe, and should be here in less than an hour."

There was a pause, and Donovan noticed that Nicholas was a paler shade than normal. For his own part, he just felt very, very tired.

* * *

"Mr. President."

The War Room was dim, with most of the light coming from a table-screen in the center, showing troop concentrations and enemy forces across the country. A group of advisors stood around the perimeter, pointing to various symbols on the screen and whispering amongst themselves. One man in a suit stood apart from the rest, a bright red handset cradled against his shoulder.

"Well look damnit, we NEED you to hold that city! That's the last line of defense we've got until the Mississippi River, and after that we're basically overrun... Do I give permission to use nukes? Hell yes I do, if you can find an enemy concentration somewhere in the area... they've basically turned the whole west coast into a giant crater anyhow... you don't have any jets left? Well pull some off recon duty and give them some bombs, damnit!" He took a deep breath and calmed himself. "Yes, okay... I know the gravity of the situation, yes... Allright. President out."

He hung the hotline on its cradle and turned toward a rather diminutive man with his hand out. "What in the hell do YOU want?"

"Dr. Ameryl Zharkof, sir. Head of Project Darkflare."

The President hesitated for a moment, then begrudgingly shook the man's hand. "Darkflare, huh? Never heard of it."

"Well, sir, the project is kept on a need-to-know basis, and prior to this, you didn't really, uh... need to know."

"I see... and what does this Darkflare project have to do with me?" said the President, dropping into a cushioned chair and scanning the center screen.

"Well, it can almost certainly turn the tide of this little war we find ourselves in. Just need your permission to give it the go-ahead."

"Ha!" he barked, sitting back. "No weapon could turn the tide of this... this massacre. Orbital bombardments, alien shock troops... you really want to be of service, go back to yesterday and tell me I should've slept in later." He gave a dismissive wave and turned back to the screen.

Dr. Zharkof, however, maintained his ground and smiled. "I think then, sir, that you'll be pleasantly surprised."


End file.
